A friend of the One
by Hylian Rider
Summary: John Landman notices that his friend Tomas Anderson has been acting very odd latly, until he is jacked out of the matrix for the first time. Now his job is to keep everyone he can off Neo's back, Neo may be the one, but even he needs some cover.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: John Landmen

John Landmen sat at his chair in his small cubicle. He had brown hair, green eyes and had a look of someone you wouldn't want to annoy. John was not married and had no children, he sometimes took pride in the fact that he was unbound to anyone. He was tired, he got up to go to the water cooler, not that he was really thirsty he just wanted an excuse to stretch his legs. He stopped to speak to Tomas Anderson, but found his cubicle empty. Maybe he was in the bathroom. He was walking passed the accountant when a man behind him pushed him in the back to get past him.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The man who'd pushed him was wearing a black suit with sunglasses and an ear piece was sticking out of his ear. The man had black hair that was cut close to his head, and a strong face. This man didn't seem scared of him, this actually scared John.

"Have you seen Mr. Anderson? The accountant was... unable to help me." John didn't like this man and really didn't like the fact he'd just been hit in the back. Tomas was also a good friend of his.

"Anderson? Anderson... Oh! You mean Tomas, no, I haven't seen him today, I think he might be sick." The man in the black suit frowned even more, if that was possible and walked off.

"Your welcome." John muttered. John saw the man as he turned a corner; and the flash of a black gun caught his eye. John ran to the secretary.

"Martha! Have you seen Tomas! It's important, he's in trouble... or he has a very annoying bodyguard."

"Oh you mean that odd fellow? No I don't think he is a friend of Tomas's. I think he went down that hall." She pointed and John ran through the open doorway there. He saw Tomas Anderson quickly moving along the outside of the windows.

"TOMAS!" His friend apparently couldn't hear him. Tomas had one thick head to go off performing stunts now. A pay phone nearby started ringing, John, now thoroughly scared, picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Is this John Landmen?" Came a women's voice.

"Yes this is, who is this?" Suddenly John felt a large pain in the back of his head. He sat up, which he realized meant he'd been laying down. A kind woman was staring at him the face.

"Welcome to Zion, and the real world."

"Real world? Is this gonna be some weird therapy thing were I have to sit in a chair and talk about my life?"

"No, you need to talk to Captain Nitro." John was then sent to this 'Captain' though of what he didn't know. This guy said that this was earth, that much John liked. He also learned that he'd been in the matrix, that was where the phone had been, and he was bald. This John didn't like.

"So, I was in a computer called, the matrix? And now I'm in the real world. Now there's this huge army about to kick our butt?"

"In a nutshell, yes, that's a good summary."

"Ok, well forget this I'm going back to sleep so I can wake up from this nightmare." John said.

"Sadly, you aren't, we're putting you back in the Matrix so you can learn all the fighting skill you will need to help us within that world."

"I suppose I don't get any say, and it's likely that I'm gonna get killed?"

"Yes." Captain Nitro said.

"...Bring it on." John was lead back to the crude seat he been laying in earlier. They lay him down and stuck something into the back of his neck. It hurt a lot, John gave a small cry of pain. Then he was standing in the middle of a kind of dojo. He was dressed in a black martial arts garb. John saw a cell phone nearby that started to ring.

"Hello?"

"Slither?" This was the name he'd had in the real world, so this was the matrix again.

"Nitro."

"Ok listen we're monitoring you. Link is downloading Kung Fu for you right now."

"Done." Came a new voice. "Ok Slither, Programs are gonna come at you. You need to focus don't think you can use Kung Fu, know you can use it." Three people, well programs came at him. Slither focused and jumped. He kicked one in the chin, grabbed the second one's head and swung him around with it. His other hand ended up punching the last one in the head. The third one lay down and disappeared. The other two came at him, mad now. Slither grabbed one's hand and punched him in the face over and over.

"Holy crud I'm good." Suddenly the second guy hit him, it hurt, he was punched again and again.

"SLITHER, YOU'VE GOT TO KEEP FOCUS, KEEP FOCUS." Came Nitro's voice. Slither focused, everything slowed down again and the two foes were easily destroyed.

"Good," Came Link voice. "Go to the next room got a nice sword for you in there."


	2. Chapter 2

"Sir all I'm saying is that this Slither kid is a quick study." Link was talking with Nitro.

"How long did it take him to truly master hand to hand combat?"

"He pasted the full test with the third day." Slither came up and spoke with Nitro.

"I am ready." He was about to learn what he was supposed to do, after weeks of weapon and gun training.

"Come." Slither was now used to becoming "jacked in" to the Matrix. Slither woke wearing his favorite type of clothes. Black pants, with four pockets, one on each hip and one more above each knee. Each one perfect to hold a gun. His shirt was brown with a logo on it, it was simply three triangles stacked up to form a larger one, but he liked it. And last but not least Slither wore a classic open trench coat. He heard Link talk to him.

"Go talk a look in the window on your right." Slither did so and saw Thomas, no wait-- Neo doing unseen acrobatics and tricks while shooting down several guards. Their job was to recuse their captain. Slither's was quite different.

"You need to keep anyone you can off Neo's back. Many people are trying to get to him, stand up at the door, and let Nobody in. Understand? NOBODY!" Slither hung up and walked and stood at the door, casually. Soon several police walked up to the door, finding it locked they turned to him.

"Do you know why this door is locked?"

"I"m sorry sirs, but no one is allowed in right now."

"Son do you know how we are?"

"I said your not allowed in." said Slither, flicking the man off showing he was against the police.

"Arrest him! For open hostility."

"Oh, please." The men came at him with handcuffs. John kicked the first one in the head, then used the man's neck to flip upward and land, punching the chief in the face. Two more police came at Slither from behind, Slither grabbed one's wrist and swung around the man, breaking his arm, then Slither came up and kicked the last one square in the chest. Then he walked back and leaned against the wall. Soon he heard blasts of guns inside. Neo had apparently gotten, "past" the guards.

"Mr. Landman."

"Oh, crap!"

"I didn't think we'd meet so soon again. Though now you know too much, you have to be _taken care of._" The agent kept moving towards Slither.

"So your here to kill me huh?"

"There's no reason to put it so bluntly." The agent suddenly moved and he was fast. Slither pulled out one of the pistols at his hips and fired at the agent, but he moved, so fast it looked like there were 5 of the agent instead of one. Slither ran forward and kicked out only to have the agent come up and catch his leg to punch his face. Slither landed and pushed himself up.

"Why bother to fight, you can't win you know." Slither ran hard at the agent and moved as though to kick and changed it to a punch at the last second, the agent let the blow land and Slither had to hold his hand because it felt as though he'd punched a brick wall.

"Now you begin to understand, I am stronger faster and tougher then you." An explosion came from the roof and Slither saw a chopper land on the roof and saw bullets fly off and heard a loud yell from Neo.

"Neo!" Slither turned to start kicking to door down only to have to agent kick him in the back. Slither kicked the agent in the face with all his strength, it caused the man to stumble for a bit. Slither kcied him again and smashed to glass on the door apart before jumping into the building. John ran over to the stair and jumped up them fast, he still reached to roof just as Neo was jumping the helicopter.

"Neo! Wait!" Then the chopper took off and Neo began shooting at the men, Slither had to dodge a few rounds because Neo couldn't see too well. The helicopter flew off, those two still had a job to do.

"Mr. Landman."

_And so do I. _thought Slither. Turning, Slither kicked out high only to find the agent catch the blow with and open handed block. Slither then tried to punch him only to feel a hand moving with invisible speed hit him hard in the gut. Slither kneeled and waited to the killing blow. Nothing happened. Slither coughed up a bit of blood. He looked up into the agent's eyes.

"It's over Mr. Landman." Slither felt rather then saw a sword behind him. Reaching back as fast as he could. Slither moved just fast enough so that the agent couldn't stop him and Slither managed to cut the 'man' across the face. The agent stumbled back and then pulled out his own gun, Slither cut the program's right arm. The program suddenly heard something through his earpiece and he ran off. Slither stood gasping then called his operator.

"Operator."

"Get me out of here NOW!" He was lead to the exit and made it without any real trouble.

"What happened?" asked Nitro.

"I don't know, some agent came at me, he fast as heck too." Nitro missed a beat in his next sentence.

"An agent... your sure?"

"Yes. just like what you told me. Wait-- didn't you see me?"

"We saw you fighting something, we didn't know who it was." Slither was nonplused.

"...Is Neo out?"

"I don't know." That night's meal was the same goop as ever. Slither gulped it down hungrily. Soon Slither heard a call. It had been Roland, he wanted to call a meeting.

End.

Ok for the record, I NEVER saw the first matrix, never once saw it, so this is based off the game "the path of neo" and a bit of who-knows-what from websites, so any bad timeline info is not my fault, but I've watch reloaded and revolutions so it will get better, promise, please R&R. (If you do I may really edit it.)


	3. Chapter 3

"You need to focus, your faster then this." Slither was angry.

"Your not tell me HOW! You just keep saying 'focus, focus, focus.' What does it mean?"

"...It means know you can do things. You just think you can be faster, KNOW you can." Slither worked at it, no easy task. He finally managed to tap it, after hours of work. It lasted about twenty seconds, but he felt everything else slow down, or else he sped up and didn't know which. Then it ended.

"THAT'S IT!" Nitro was happy.

"I focused, dang, that was cool."

"Yeah, sure, but we need you to be able to do that on demand."

"Ok..." Slither tried, and tried, he managed to tap in a few times, after a few more hours. Until around midnight, he could tap in and out of his focus easy. This made fighting the training agents a lot easier. Of course they weren't as tough as real agents, but Slither wanted them to look that way so he could take his training seriously. He kept listening to the 'Neo talk' going around. He was supposed to be amazing, Slither wanted to see him fight. He got his chance almost a year later.

"Roland wants a meeting! Follow Clitter. He'll put you where you need to go." Slither did what he was told and made it to the place, he was placed by the door, as a guard, again. Once a truck drove by and someone knocked. The person said he wanted to talk to Neo.

"I have something for him, a gift, you see he set me free." He gave Slither a package.

"Fine. Whatever." Slither told the man to do something that, had he said it to his old boss, he would've been fired for it. Neo came up.

"Who was that?"

"How did you know someone was here?" Slither held back his joy of seeing his old friend again and did his duty.

"He said to give you this," Slither tossed him the package and Neo opened it and tossed an earpiece into his hand. "He said you set him free."

"Is everything alright sir?" asked his partner.

"The meeting's over, retreat to your exits, agents are coming."

"AGENTS?" asked Slither scared. The door suddenly had a dent appear in it.

"Go." The door got pounded on five more times then broke open. Three agents walked in, Slither hid in the corner invisible.

"Hiya fellas." said Neo.

"It's him." One agent said.

"The anomaly."

"Do we proceed?"

"Yes."

"He is still..."

"...only human." Slither loved to hear the way agents talking in groups, it was funny really. The forward most agent started out with three kicks which Neo blocked easily, Then about six or seven punches follow before Neo threw his own punch, the agent grabbed Neo's fist.

"Hm... upgrades." Then things got really fast and Slither had to focus just to see it. Neo punched the lead one in the face before totally advancing, the agents didn't land a hit on him. He was incredible. At a point a agent grabbed him and threw him at a pole Neo grabbed the pole and swung around it, then kicked the agent so hard he flew into the wall. Then he flipped over the second one and kicked the third one into the wall, the last agent came a Neo hard. He swung kicked and gave it his all. Neo just calmly moved backwards, then kicked him into a street pole. That was it, game over. Slither walked outside to talk to Neo then, somehow, he just flew, actually, flew away, Slither moved to exit the Matrix but heard footsteps.

"That went as excepted?"

"Yes."

"it's happening exactly as before."

"Well not exactly." Slither turned and saw two agents standing there, Neo had gone and Slither wouldn't stand a chance. He ran hard to the exit.

"Operator."

"Get me out NOW!" So the man did. Unplugged him fast. Slither sat up.

"What happened?"

"Agents."

"That can't be I didn't read any." said the operator.

"Well I don't care what you _read. _I _saw _a guy, well two, with short hair, sunglasses, wearing a black suit, and he talked like a computer. So if that ain't an agent nothing is." The next day was a bad one for Slither, he had gotten a bad night's sleep, consisting of about three hours. He also had to be jacked back in. Neo was visiting the oracle, and Slither had to watch his back, why was something never explained. Neo was good enough to watch his own back, far better then Slither was anyway. After all he was the one, whatever that meant.

"Try to keep anyone from reaching Neo or the oracle, ok?"

"Sure, whatever." Then he was plugged in. He opened his eyes, he was in a sort of courtyard, and an old woman sat on the bench nearby feeding the birds. Slither walked over to her from behind.

"Well you can come and sit, I won't kill ya." Slither was surprised, she couldn't have seen him. Was this the oracle who could 'see' things?

"Thanks." Slither sat next to here. "My name is--"

"--Slither, I know. You my friend have what I think will be quite an amusing future."

"...You, see my future?"

"Yes, and it's funny really, though it's more ironic then comic."

"What is my future?"

"The same as your current self. You are what could be called a backround man, you guard Neo, weather or not you know it, you understand why you've done it, but you don't process the sight, so you can't see. But you are going to be Neo's friend and guard until you or he dies."

"Does it matter? He's far better then me, I don't think I'm even guarding him, I just keep what I can off his back. He took out the agents I run from."

"Yes, but you keep Neo from being too far overwhelmed." Slither didn't argue.

"Now if you don't mind Neo wants to talk to me." Slither got up and walked outside the gate. Slither saw an agent far off, but still easily within sight. He soon reached Slither, then the conversation between Neo and the oracle was tuned out.

"Mr. Landman." Slither didn't give the agent a chance to strike. He focused and threw three punches, the agent caught them then tried to throw a few of his own. This was the... Smith agent. Slither managed to catch every blow the man sent his way. So while he couldn't him the agent, the agent couldn't hit him. There was something odd about this agent though, he had no earpiece. Slither kicked up high and caught the program in the breastbone which sent him flying backwards.

"Don't tick me off!" Slither ran forward to kick Smith, when another hand grabbed him from behind. He turned to find Smith, wait, Slither did a double take, yes there was defiantly two Smiths. Slither heard a yell behind him, something about propose. Slither saw many many Smiths, attacking Neo.

"Yes now you begin to understand. There's just so many mes." Slither beat the one holding him back the kicked the other one high in the air. He focused then ran into the courtyard and began pounding on the outmost Smiths, six of them picked him up and threw him out, then eight of them beat him up. He focused as long as he could and actually beat three of them up badly. They could have been, 'dead' if such things could happen to a program; or maybe they were just a heck of a lot tougher then he thought. Slither was beat back and caught a glimpse of Neo flipping around with a pole.

Slither heard a call of, "Stop him from getting involved." Smiths came at him. He kicked and punched trying to break free. It was little good, focusing hard he could hit them but his focus always broke before long. His only thought was to help Neo. He looked over and saw a large pile of Smiths piling on top of his friend.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Slither saw a bunch of Agents on top of his friend. He punched two in the face, kicked a third in the chest and spun, whipping out knifes. He slashed one across the chest just as he heard what sounded like a gunshot from behind. He saw Neo fly away. Slither breathed a little easier.

"Don't think it's so easy mr. Landman. Your friend mr. Anderson seems to have, left, but you don't seem to be going anywhere right now."

"You talk too much." He focused and punched, Smith caught his arm and threw him he caught the pole of a bus sign and he flung around on it. Kicking one in the chest. He went switching between his focus and his normal knife training. He couldn't get a leg up.

"Why do you insist on fighting mr. Landman? Your doom is inevitable."

"Shut up, and my name is Slither." He swung at Smith but the blow was blocked. He stabbed out again and caught one in the cheek. He backflipped then leapt while focused, jumping as high as he possibly could. He didn't soar off, he flew. His bend in the rules of the matrix scared him so much that he lost it for a few seconds. Then he landed on the rooftop. He pulled out his phone.

"Operator. Got an exit set up for you."

"Cancel it, I need to meet the oracle. Now."

"Have it your way she's in the town far below."

"Any ideas on how to get there?"

"Your the man who just flew you tell me." He hung up. He focused, the matrix was codes, just several codes that was all. He saw it and altered it. He took off and landed on top of a shabby apartment. He opened the door and saw her sitting on the couch.

"Come in let me see you." He sat next to her. "You really are lost aren't you?"

"Tell me what happened, tell me how I managed to fight an agent, tell me why I can hurt them now, tell me how I managed to fly. Just tell me what in the world is happening to me." He stared at her, he saw something that was pity in her eyes.

"I wish this didn't have to happen to you, your a good kid, you truly are. You are a potential. You were ironically the human that the system assumed to be the one. This is before it knew who the true one was. You've saved Neo's life before. And your going to need to do it again Slither." She said.

"What do you mean?"

"You know a program called Smith? He was once an agent but instead of facing what would've been his deletion he choose to go into an exile. Now he's back and he hasn't forgotten the one person who made him suffer and he will stop at nothing to kill him."

"You mean when Neo killed Smith."

"Correct, Smith is going to take control of everything within the matrix." An hour later Slither was unplugged.

"I need time, don't bother me." He was in his room meditating. Relaxing, letting all the effort of a hard battle drain out of him, it just flowed smoothly and he became relaxed. He paced his cabin. The oracle had told him that one of their own was now an agent at heart, and that he wouldn't have long to wait to meet him. That didn't make any sense. No matter it would sort itself out. He walked up to Nitro and explained all he knew. He was pretty stunned.

"There's more," Slither said. "Neo is going to get to the source of the Matrix and end the war, tonight. And I must go and find the Hammer to help him." Nitro couldn't believe it.

"I don't want to hear anymore about this oracle or visions. You are in my ship you do what I say!" That very hour Slither had left his ship, the Thunder. He had a terrible time trying to make his way across the hard cold ground of what had been human cities. He crawled and ran, ducked and jumped over jumbles of rocks, bits of electrical wire and many dead bodies, machine and man alike. Eventually he looked up and saw a glorious glow, the glow of a human ship. He picked up the gun he'd brought with him and fired up in the air to give a signal.

The Hammer slowed and picked him up. Ghost was trying to help get the ship up but it was stuck down. She'd need a jump. "We don't have time away! Just plug me in!" Slither said. He was jacked in and opened his eyes seeing several things the first of which was a woman, this woman wore a tan outfit that was tight on her body. She looked at him and spent a very long time looking into his eyes. Finally deciding that the woman here wasn't going to say a thing to him he opened his mouth.

"Who are you?"

"You look a lot like your friend, Neo. He will need your help, he's inside." Slither slammed his shoulder into the large castle doors. He dodged a sword and then leapt over a thrown knife. Slither looked at his attacker before the latter spoke.

"Your not welcome here!"

"No kidding. But I need to see the frenchman."

"The only way your getting through here is over my big dead body."

"Have it your way then." Slither flew forward and grabbed his arm before jumping over and shooting him in the back. He leapt over the man and kicked him in the face. He spun and leapt up and landed on the man then stabbed him in the face with his combat knife. Slither charged through the door and saw at least seventeen people were standing there but he could tell that they were from an early time of the matrix, meaning not only were they single minded but very though to defeat. He dash forward and flipped over a man only to be caught by a fully launched body in the midsection.

Slither rolled and caught the stone ceiling above with his hand flipped over and pushed off with his feet stabbing through the man on his way down. Slither focus and didn't land, because he had literally flown up again and free fired at the men and woman below. Still sixteen to go. Slither came down with his combat knife and fell into a dance with the others. Block up high over you high, strike left, block your left leg, strike right again. He had brought it down to eight, but had exhausted all his bullets. Slither saw three come at him from the back and two on either side towards the front. He leapt and kicked on the front ones, stabbed the other through the head and spun on the corpse to swing around a punch the other one.

"Mr. Landman!"

"Oh you gotta be kidding me, not now." Slither said as Smith was approaching from the opened door. "Even my luck isn't this bad!" He ran forward and kicked a Smith in the head turned and punched another, he stabbed through a third. One of the Frenchman's men came up behind him. Slither turned and sliced that man several times across the face. Only five of the Frenchman's followers left but an infinite number of Smith. At this point Slither was forced to see that he wouldn't be able to reach Neo, because if he did, it'd be with a trail of Smith hot on his tail.

Slither leapt up on top of a balcony turned and faced the Smith. He relaxed himself and focused then waved for the Smith to come and get him. Three jumped up at him, he slashed one's arm and leaned forward kicking him by flinging his foot back over his head from behind. The Smith fell off the stone and hit the ground below hard. Slither turned and slashed the other two with his combat knives. He leapt down into the crowd and he turned, and spun then slashed just trying to survive.

He knew he was running out of stamina, nobody, not even Neo could fight forever. He knew he was going to run out of energy, and soon. Slither began to slice and kick his way to the door, when only three Smiths were in the way he flew right through them and off into the world, he called the operator and asked where Neo was. It was alright, Slither had saved him from Smith at least. The problem was Slither only had about three hours to rest. At midnight Neo was going to attempt to get to the source, and end the war.

He was unplugged and given a cot to sleep on. His vision blacked out. While he slept Slither heard voices.

"Ghost just look at him, the fact he even got to us is amazing, but with all the plugging in and out of the Matrix he's doing, and he's not just some guard anymore. He now does more then you or me. Slither is always fighting Smith clones or the Frenchmen's people and you know how hard they are to kill."

"I know, his stamina is incredible, not just that but his strength I mean he's not the one yet he flies and does incredible things. I hate to see him like this, he does nothing but fight and then become unplugged and then he passes out until he fights again, it's not healthy." When the time came Niobe woke Slither. He rub his eyes and lay down in the chair. He was jacked in and saw he was in a room that had windows overlooking a city and a single door leading out. He went to it and opened it and walked in closing the door behind him.

The place changed, it was now a lot brighter and showed a never-ending hallway of doors. He tentatively walked down the hallway. How was he supposed to find Neo in here? He could be going the completely wrong direction. He started to flying down the hallway picking forks in the path at random. Finally he caught up with Smith and Neo as he heard the words.

"Kill them!" Slither flew around the corner and punched two Smith as he saw a door close, so Neo was safe, but he still had to escape. He turned to go.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Slither now heard the agent coming from another hall, he just ran and slid around a corner and kept running. Slither managed to slide around another corner as he heard the agent's voice fade. He was close now. But there was a fork up ahead and he didn't know which way to go and the sounds of running seemed to be coming from both ways. He pulled out his phone.

"Come on, come on! Pick up." The phone suddenly just stopped ringing.

"What now the stupid thing choses not to get reception or whatever the heck it uses to work?" Slither was angry. He started to dash down the right hand path but then a voice broke through. Slither swore and spun on his heels at the sound.

"Mr. Landman." Smith walked forward. "Sadly your friend Mr. Anderson just left. We invited him to stay but it seems he has business elsewhere. You, however, don't need to be going anywhere right now."

"I don't need this." Slither kicked Smith in the chest and pulled out his pistols. Firing rapidly proved only the fact that Slither had the ability to hit the walls.

"You don't seem to be anything near a good shot mr. Landman." commented the lead Smith. Slither threw his guns at the man and ran forward at the same time. Smith dodged the guns and Slither jumped on his chest making Smith bend over backwards. Slither focused and kicked Smith in the face. Smith went flying and hit one of the endless doors. He flipped his combat knives and went to work, he wasn't getting anywhere without a fight. He kicked over one Smith's head then stabbed him in the chest and flipped over him kicking hard. Two Smith fell into several others.

"Mr. Landman, your beginning to really annoy us."

"Get used to it Smith. I going to fight and escape you until Neo manages to finish you off for good."

"Mr. Anderson? Finish us off? Your joke doesn't amuse me."

"Of course, I'm going to do it first. Sorry about that." Slither leapt up and kick a Smith so hard his was sent flying smashing into several of the other copies. One leapt up and pulled out a pistol and pulled the trigger several times. Then Slither leaned back as far as he could and dodged the line of bullets. He had done it almost automatically, without thinking without even trying to focus. That's when the idea hit him. Before now he'd always fought thinking about what he could do. Now, the idea of instinct was an open path before him.

He saw Smith's fist coming at him and just did what his body wanted to do. He sidestepped the blow and smashed the nearest Smith in the face with his elbow. His sixth sense was nagging him to leap up and not duck. Slither did and dodged both a bullet and fist at the same time. He landed and kicked out, faster and stronger then any agent. Smith began to see that they faced an actual annoyance and they started disappearing through the doors. Slither punched out, then duck avoiding a blow. He kicked out and saw the fleeing ex-agents.

Slither then ran forward and picked a door at random. He appearing near his old apartment. He drew out his phone and got connected.

"Operator."

"Get me an exit, my job is done for now."

"Ok, got one all set up on the windsville overpass. Have you in a few." Slither hung up the phone and flew off towards the exit. He reached it without a problem but as he walked to it the man who'd been asleep had his body taken over and he became an agent.

"Your the potential, I've been created here to eliminate you. You are only human, I am superior." Slither ran right at him and dodge one punch then two others and slammed the agent in the chest. The program's back slammed into the brick wall behind him. Slither was slightly surprised he'd won so easily. He really had gotten better. Perhaps as good as Neo. He could do all the same things, couldn't he? Slither kicked three time the agent was pushed through the wall. He went and picked up the phone.

"You ok?" asked Ghost.

"Yeah fine, I'm gonna need some rest, wake me when he's back inside." Slither got more sleep that night then he could ever remember having. At somewhere around midnight he was shaken awake and was put through a quick training course for a wake up course.

"There's a couple things, first off, Neo's not quite in the Matrix yet, but he will be soon. You must kill Smith before he gets there, Neo can't do everything... Slither?"

"Plug me in."

"Just so you know we won't be able to pull you out, the Matrix is so messed up right now that unless you fix it, your stuck in there."

"...Do it." He felt the needle enter the back of his head. He knew he would have to save Neo or die. There was no middle choice.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Thunder shook the skies as lightning broke the clouds apart. Slither walked down the long rain flooded streets. He was clothed differently this time around. His coat was made of a rain-resistent leather, and beneath it Slither wore a black shirt. His smooth black pants, this time with no pistol holders, were covered from just below the knees and downward by the jet black boots. His sunglasses don't taint his sight of the night at all. Slither saw the walls of lines of Smiths and he saw the two Smiths there on the end of the street. The one on the right addressed Slither.

"Mr. Landman. We weren't expecting you. We are waiting for Mr. Anderson."

"Sorry, I'm afraid Neo's a little busy, you'll have to deal with me for now." Slither waited. He thought that at any moment both Smiths would come running at him. Instead they seemed to be watching him, studying him. Finally the Smith on the left spoke.

"Mr. Landman, I was the original first Smith. The one Mr. Anderson destroyed and the one who will have vengeance. I am the most powerful individual here. My clone standing next to me is a clone from the oracle. He is very powerful, yet is far less difficult to kill then myself. While either of us could easily defeat you, I think I need a warm up. So I shall fight you alone." The other Smith, what was left of the oracle, stepped into line with all the others. Smith and Slither looked at each other. A deep killer intent radiated through the air.

Slither blinked and began running at the same moment as Smith. He drew back his fist throwing a punch two steps away from the agent. Smith was right on par with him. Slither saw Smith's attack and blocked with his left arm. Smith saw Slither's attack, but couldn't move fast enough to block it. The punch sent him through the wall of Smiths to the left. They picked him up and tossed him back into the fight. Slither threw a kick at the agent's head but he dodged. Slither swept low with his other leg and tripped Smith so he was in the air for a second.

Slither went wild and pulled off twenty punches before Smith hit the ground. Then he kicked Smith back up and jacked him across the face. Smith stood dazed for a moment. Slither looked at him as the lightning broke the heavens again and thunder boomed across the sky, nearly rendering him deaf. Smith was focused again and came running at him. Slither blocked one kick and a hook but wasn't fast enough to dodge the next fist that sent him flying through the air and sliding across the concrete.

Slither got up wearily. He then realized him lost his sunglasses. It wasn't really like he needed them anyway. Slither ran forward and jacked Smith across the face. The agent turned back to him. Slither drew back his fist and hit him again. He was driving him back now.

"You, won't, ever, touch, Neo, again." said Slither with a punch inbetween every word. Smith looked at him and removed the broken sunglasses he wore. He threw four quick punches at Slither who blocked them easily. He then kicked and Smith was sent flying and rolling down the street. He jumped up angrily.

"Mr. Landman, now your throughly beginning to annoy me." Slither ran forward and blocked two strikes the kicked Smith in the chest. He kicked his foe again and the suit-clad man fell down hard. Slither leapt on top of him and began to strangle him. Closing his hands closer and closer together, Slither suddenly felt a fist collide with his head. He didn't let go and continued choking the agent to death. Then the cold metal of a gun press against Slithers breastbone, and a gunshot rang throughout the streets.

Slither looked down at the blood pouring from the open wound. He touched it, surprised that this could've happened. Slither did feel the pain from it, yet somehow it didn't seem real somehow. Slither reached down and grabbed up the pistol before pointing it at Smith's head and firing rapidly. The agent did not dodge the attacks, but was shot over and over. He froze. All the fight went out of him and Smith lay on the ground... dead. Slither fell backwards onto the ground. Moaning and clutching at his wound. He looked up and heard the clicks of several guns.

"Time to die... Mr. Landman." Several pistol shots rand through the air. That noise was the last thing Slither ever heard. Meanwhile Neo was approaching the Machine city with Trinity.


End file.
